Travel sector in India is on a roll! The ongoing travel revolution has won the confidence of budding entrepreneurs and today Indian companies are competing with foreign multinational giants. Speaking at the IAMAI’s 12 India Digital Summit, MMT’s CEO Deep Kalra emphasized the importance of a reliable model for a startup and that travel revolution is here to stay. Thanks to the social media that has been leveraged well by the travel industry. The travel industry is a successful outcome of good startup ecosystem and an entrepreneur’s ability to present exceptional business models and see them thrive.

MakeMyTrip founder sounded quite positive about the future of startup ecosystem and also maintained that it is here to stay. “However, it is imperative for the Indian companies to do well. Let the foreign capital come and let them do well. But I want Indian companies to equally do well,” he said to stave off foreign companies domination.

The remarkable growth in the number of Indians traveling today would peak even more and by 2020 Indian can see as many as 40 million travelers going abroad. And this holds the key to success for Indian travel industry. Such is the situation in the inbound and outbound travel that airlines and hotels are actually experiencing full booking. People are forever busy making travel plans and their desire to travel seems never-ending, thanks to the social media phenomenon that has rekindled the desire to travel in people. The folks are more aware of travel and the business is primarily generated through mobile phones. MakeMyTrip alone has recorded 70 percent of its total booking through mobile out of which 90 percent is from MakeMyTrip app.

Even the Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma had a few words for the Make In India initiative at the event and stated that the time is perfect for Indian business models to lead the world. Sharma added that Paytm did 225 million transactions last month and during the fiscal, it is all set to achieve 14 billion gross merchandise value.

Lauding the government’s initiative, Sharma said that in the seven years between 2018 and 2025, Indian economy would shoot up by USD 2.5 trillion and it is the digital industry majorly contributing to the growth of the economy. The accomplishments of Flipkart founder Sachin and Binny Bansal was particularly mentioned by Mr. Sharma.

IAMAI’s 12 India Digital Summit mostly discussed the building positive environment around startup culture. Travel is the next big thing and Indian travel industry is here to thrive!